


No Remedy for Memory

by kikitheslayer



Category: Archer (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Character Study, Episode Related, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Post-Season/Series 07 Finale, gratuitous angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 05:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7346317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikitheslayer/pseuds/kikitheslayer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Deadly Velvet Part II. Lana's not ready for a breakdown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Remedy for Memory

**Author's Note:**

> In case it's not clear, I know... _nothing_ about police procedure.

Lana was in shock.

Not stare-at-nothing, put-a-blanket-around-my-shoulders shock, just good, old-fashioned denial. She didn’t have to think about it. She could just take charge, handle things. She’d done it before when he was gone, thrown herself into work instead of feeling. That was what she was good at. That was what was needed. 

She held Mallory, and she kept everyone back, and she put a lid on Pam once she started wailing. She stood, squared her shoulders, and started barking orders at everyone, Figgis Agency and LAPD alike.

“Okay, you,” she said, pointing at a random cop, “call the hospital, and we’ll--”

“There’s no way he’s…”

“Look, just ta--” She stopped, cut herself off. “Right. You’re right. Okay, we need a bodybag. Where’s forensics?”

There was some friction to even out. She consulted with the detectives and Cyril on what to do with his remains. Cyril was nervous, shaking. He kept speaking slowly and reluctantly, sneaking glances at her face. She wanted to slap him.

Eventually, they came to an agreement. The police got the body, but they wouldn’t perform an autopsy unless they need the evidence to convict Veronica Deane for good.

Lana knew how much Mallory would want a real service.

They’d probably destroy him anyway. Assholes.

Finally, finally, they were all allowed to leave. The sun wasn’t quite up, but would be soon after. Lana was so tired by then, just tired, and everything was a little hazy. Someone asked if she wanted to ride with Archer, and she mumbled an affirmative before it even registered that they mean with him in a body bag, not a Ferrari.

She got in anyway, too tired to fight. She sat on the floor of the moving ambulance, propped up against the side.

She wasn’t ready to be still, and suddenly she got an idea. She pulled a knife out of her boot and slowly stood and unzipped the body bag. She winced, then swallowed and braced herself.

She decided his cheek was as good a place as any -- and didn’t feel like seeing the bullet wounds -- so she took the knife, and breathing in, made a tiny cut into his cheek.

Blood seeped out. Not one circuit.

She caught herself just before she could really drop the knife. Silently, she zipped up the body bag and sat back down.

She was breathing hard then, almost hyperventilating. She hadn’t really thought -- well, sure, she’d known Archer was mortal, had told him all the time but --

Not this.

She’d bought into it somewhere along the line, had started to believe he was really invincible.

Well, no. She’d just always thought his stubbornness would win out in the end, that if it came down to it he would… fist-fight God or antagonize the Devil or _something_ until he was back alive.

Back with her and AJ.

She shoved that thought aside. 

She’d always thought that if Archer was going to die, it would be something big. He’d die and take the whole world with him. 

And okay, so getting shot by a movie superstar and tossed in her pool after some kind of elaborate, failed plot with his AI twin wasn’t small, but…

But she hadn’t been there. First, she was with Archer and he was alive, and then the next time he wasn’t. She didn’t get to watch him jump into an explosion, or wrestle a bear, or be thrown from an airboat race. He’d just disappeared, winked out of existence, her life.

That wasn’t right. Archer was supposed to be there. That was what worked about their relationship: presence. Neither of them had many people in their lives, but they had each other. It worked, that they would always be together, working missions, fighting, getting drinks. That they would inevitably fuck again. That she would always have a reason to punch him.

She hated the thought, because it made her sound like some kind of love-sick idiot, like the protagonist of a shitty teen novel, but they were supposed to die together. It was them against the world.

She still wasn’t ready for the breakdown; she tried to focus on anything else.

What did she still need to do?

Mallory. She’d call in the morning. And AJ. She’d have to write a check, didn’t have enough cash for all the extra hours the babysitter had been there --

AJ. Fuck. That’s what did it. Breakdowns come whether you’re ready or not, and this was Lana’s.

She _couldn’t_ tell AJ. She couldn’t. AJ _loved_ Archer. She’d be devastated. And for what? She was goddamn two. She’d scream and cry and know something much bigger than her was happening, and when she was older she wouldn’t remember a thing. 

That was the worst thought Lana had ever had. AJ wouldn’t even fucking remember him.

She started crying then, burying her face in her arms. The sobs ravaged her insides. It was hard to breath.

Archer had died, and she wasn’t even the one to kill him.

A few hours ago, she had thought he was proposing to her, and she hadn’t known what her answer was. She’d been panicked. It felt like one of those dreams where you have to take a test on a book that everyone read but you.

But she had been happy. Confused, angry, scared, and really fucking happy.

Then she’d watched Archer’s face short-circuit, contort, and her stomach had plummeted lower than she’d known it could.

That was nothing compared to now. Nothing compared to realizing she would have said yes.

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly a second chapter to come, idk yet.
> 
> Title from "Dark Paradise" by Lana Del Rey.


End file.
